Page 24 of Ancient Obsession

Robin made a face. “But it felt…I dunno…kinda wrong. You know?”

“Like grave robbing?”

“Yeah, maybe. But also, like, let the guy be at peace. I mean, when I’m dead and buried, I don’t want some dickhead three thousand years from now whose essence is walking around inside an AI chatbot robot shell digging me up and poking at my bones.”

Oliver laughed. “Good comparison. Although some days it would be nice to be able to send an AI chatbot robot out into the world instead of having to go myself.”

“That would be fire. Glad I thought of it.”

“Now you just have to build it.”

“Right.” Robin was quiet for a bit. “What do you think got on us?”

“I don’t know. I hope it wasn’t some kind of ancient virus.”

“Yeah, right? Or some kind of curse.”

He shivered even in the mild evening air. “I guess we should have expected something like that, based on all the movies with this exact scenario.”

Robin laughed. “I know, right? Man, I love those old monster movies. What about you?”

“I do. But I’ve kind of gotten away from them now that I’m older.” And, he thought, when you’ve survived your own personal monster movies more than once.

They reached his car, and Oliver unlocked it with the key fob. “Thanks for inviting me. It didn’t turn out like I’d hoped, but it was still pretty cool.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“You couldn’t have known.” Oliver looked around the empty parking lot. “Oh, you don’t have a car, do you?”

Robin shrugged. “No. I’ll catch the bus.”

“No way. Get in, I’ll drive you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I want to. You’re in Thorndale, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s on my way home. Come on.”

Robin was quiet as they left the parking lot. When he glanced over, Oliver saw them gripping their knees tight.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Robin rocked forward and back in their seat.

“Still feel it on you?”

They made a face. “Yeah. It’s kind of freaking me out. What if we turn into zombies or something? Have we been roofied by a mummy?”

They laughed together, but Oliver wondered if maybe they had a point. What kind of effect would that stuff have on them?

They were quiet after that until they entered Thorndale’s city limits. Robin directed him to a brick colonial on a nice, tree-lined street. The front porch light was on, and the downstairs windows glowed.

“Nice house,” Oliver said.

Robin smiled. “It is. They’ve been really great to me.”